Debate in Jerusalem, at World Forum for Combating Antisemitism, at Session on Holocaust Denial and Distortion in Eastern Europe
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Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?
Jerusalem Debate on Antisemitism in Lithuania: Deputy Foreign Minister and Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, Israel, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views
Tagged Efraim Zuroff
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When the Lithuanian Prime Minister Interrupts his Schedule to Greet Some Very Non-Litvak Rabbis from London
Trix & Treats for Londoners in Vilnius?
Why did Lithuania’s Prime Minister Entertain Non-Litvak (“Galitsyáner”) Rabbis from London to “Permit” a $25,000,000 Convention Center Project in the Heart of the old Vilna Jewish Cemetery?
All three Vilnius rabbis were excluded from the conversation. And — an international (secular) “Heritage Commission” was set up to “save” Jewish cemeteries…
Above: Prime Minister of Lithuania Algirdas Butkevičius welcomes London-based rabbis from CPJCE who “permitted” a $25,000,000 convention center project for the middle of the old Vilna Jewish cemetery. Below: Government’s top Jewish affairs maestro Lina Saulėnaitė entertains the delegation. PM is 3rd from left. A 2009 U.S. State Department cable refers to these rabbis being paid $100,000 for “supervising” some “beautification” and “exploratory digging” but what are they being paid this time, for “supervising” construction of the convention and entertainment center? IMAGE: Stills from the Lrytas.lt Lituanian TV video.
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok)
Tagged CPJCE, CPJCE (Committee for Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe), Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg (CPJCE), Snipiskes / Piramont / Jewish cemetery
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Restitution of Stolen Jewish Property in Latvia to Victims and Rightful Heirs
O P I N I O N
by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud)
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On November 17, 2013 I was invited and participated as a guest speaker at the Yizkor memorial event organized by the “Jewish Survivors of Latvia, Inc.” (New York). The event was held at the Park East Synagogue at 163 East 67th Street in Manhattan.
The really important speech, though, was given by Douglas Davidson, the US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues. He dealt with the results of his numerous visits to Latvia pertaining to that specific issue: due restitution to the Jewish victims or their heirs. Their properties were stolen or requisitioned during the war and the massacres.
Posted in Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Roland Binet
Tagged Douglas Davidson, Looted Jewish property in Latvia, Mozus Berkovich, Post-Holocaust issues in Latvia, Roland Binet
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A Lowpoint in American (and Canadian) Diplomacy?
UN Resolution for “Combating Glorification of Nazism”Passes in General Assembly Committee (115 for, 3 against, with 55 abstentions)
Resolution, offered by Russia, seen as inherently flawed by Putinist machinations, Russia-Ukraine crisis & East-West feuding; EU abstains, asBaltic nationalists gloat (Delfi.lt)
STILL A SHOCK that three member states voted against: Ukraine, USA,Canada. Ukraine’s government recently made “heroes” of Nazi collaborators; catalogue of the last year.
Posted in Canada, Double Genocide, EU, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Ukraine, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
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A Historic Ukrainian Low for US (and Canadian) Foreign Policy?
UN Resolution for “Combating Glorification of Nazism”Passes in General Assembly Committee (115 for, 3 against, with 55 abstentions)
Resolution, offered by Russia, seen as inherently flawed by Putinist machinations, Russia-Ukraine crisis & East-West feuding; EU abstains, asBaltic nationalists gloat (Delfi.lt)
STILL A SHOCK that three member states voted against: Ukraine, USA,Canada. Ukraine’s government recently made “heroes” of Nazi collaborators; catalogue of the last year.
The State Department’s idea of American moral leadership?
Text of the Resolution
Are unchecked Neo-Con politics behind the failure to Just Say No to the adulation of Nazi collaborators?
Posted in Canada, Double Genocide, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, News & Views, Ukraine, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
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An Open Letter to Inna Rogatchi
O P I N I O N
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Dear Dr. Rogatchi,
Warm congratulations on your excellent film, The Lessons of Survival. Conversations with Simon Wiesenthal. We encourage all our readers to see the film, and those who live in or near Vilnius to attend the screening this Tuesday 28 October 2014 at 5 PM at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library, followed by a distinguished panel discussion.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Vilnius Jewish Public Library", Double Games, Film, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Darius Degutis, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Eastern Europe, Holocaust in Lithuania, Inna Rogatchi, Israeli Embassy in Tel Aviv, Simon Wiesenthal, Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Wyman Brent
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Tsemakh Shabad’s 150th Birthday Celebrated in Style at the Lithuanian Parliament
O P I N I O N
by Defending History Staff
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Asuccessful, highly compressed one-day conference, exhibition and city plaque unveiling were all shoehorned into one day, today, in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, to mark the 150th birth year of the celebrated and beloved Dr. Tsemakh Shabad (1864–1935), Vilna physician, public health advocate, benefactor, Yiddishist theoretician and builder of Yiddish educational infrastructure from elementary schools to the university-level Yivo institute. He was also a representative in the city’s municipality. Shabad was a legend in his own time. When poor sick children in any shtetl of Vilna province, of whatever nationality or background, were in danger of imminent death from disease, there were no greater words of relief than “Dr. Shabad is on the way.”
The conference banner, a joint production of the Lithuanian parliament (Seimas), the Jewish Community of Lithuania and the Ministry of Health, featured the Yiddish Folks-gezunt (public health) logo, beloved of Dr. Shabad.
Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Vytenis Andriukaitis, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Faina Kukliansky, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, Jonathan Brent, Masha Grodnik (Grodnikaite), Tsemakh Shabad, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis
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Another Panel at Yivo, Neo-Nazi Marches in Lithuania, and American Silence on Glorification of Nazi Collaborators
O P I N I O N
by Olga Zalubdoff
The following is the text of Olga Zabludoff’s op-ed published on 13 February 2014 in the Algemeiner Journal. Comments by readers are available at the original site of publication.
Yivo, Lithuania, The Holocaust
Nobody could love or respect the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research more than I do. It was founded as the Yiddish Scientific Institute in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1925. Yivo remains a symbol for all who cherish our Yiddish heritage and, now, its last prewar survivors. Through the years I have spent many wondrous hours at Yivo, digging, discovering, and learning about my Litvak ancestors, their shtetlakh, and their culture. Being there always felt like being home. The books and documents I handled seemed almost sacred. Memories of conversations with Yivo’s’s revered librarian Dina Abramowicz still make me smile. . .
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Olga Zabludoff, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?, Yiddish Affairs, Yivo Manipulated?
Tagged Dr. Jonathan Brent, Neo-Nazi marches of Feb 16th and March 11th (Lithuania), Olga Zabludoff, Yivo Lithuania
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Efraim Zuroff on Tablet Magazine’s Co-Sponsorship of Lithuanian Government’s Yivo Event, and a Suggestion for Yivo’s Audience
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust historian, Nazi-hunter, and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, has posted the following comment on the website of Tablet magazine, as one of the comments to a new book review. The comment also appears separately on Facebook.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States, Yivo Manipulated?
Tagged Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Lithuania, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Yivo + Holocaust, Yivo Lithuania
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Riga, Capital of European Culture: Waffen SS, Stags and Silence?
O P I N I O N
by Monica Lowenberg
The UK’s home secretary Theresa May, the Hungarian Jobbik party, and Holocaust Memorial Day have all been in the press lately. Reading how the leader of pro-Nazi Jobbik party was, in the interests of free speech, allowed to hold his rally in Hyde Park, I have to question why Ms. May allowed this man entry into the UK and hadn’t called his racist attitudes, “unacceptable” as she had in the past with, “Every Muslim should be a terrorist” Zakir Naik. What had changed?
In the Capital of European Culture: Waffen SS Calendar (Riga 2014)
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, Latvia, Monica Lowenberg, News & Views, Opinion, Riga's Waffen SS Marches, Symbology, United Kingdom
Tagged Europe Secretary David Lidington, Jobbik party, Monica Lowenberg, Waffen SS marches in Latvia
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Is Tom Lantos’s Widow on Hungarian Government’s List of “Useful Foreigners”?
The Hungarian government, like others in Eastern Europe, is enlisting well-intentioned Western naifs in its plans to mobilize Holocaust commemoration itself as part of the East European revisionist Double Genocide movement. The effort seeks to downgrade the Holocaust, downplay local collaboration and participation, and to cover tracks with sophisticated revisionism. Along the way, memberships in august bodies, prizes, awards and junkets are generously offered to select foreigners. The efforts by the Lithuanian government have been in the forefront of the tendency.
Posted in Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Hungary, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Nations
Tagged Annette Lantos, Holocaust in Hungary, Hungarian Spectrum, Mária Vásárhely, Tom Lantos
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Raising Cain on the Resurrection of Abel
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Genesis 3:13
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. Genesis 4:10
Driving east out of Rokiškis, fields give way to forest, and the lake country leads on to strange and wild hills in an abandoned quarter of the country bordering Latvia. The lake country is beautiful, almost alpine in its effect, and spotted with small settlements and villages of varying sizes, some even boasting gas stations and schools.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Arts, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Rákishok (Rokiškis), Symbology
Tagged Genocide Center in Vilnius, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Obeliai
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Jerusalem Post, Again, Fails to Post Dissenting Comments on a “Lithuania Ecstasy” Story
M e d i a W a t c h / O p i n i o n
Readers on several continents again report to Defending History that the Jerusalem Post has failed to post perfectly polite comments to yet another ecstatic ode to issueless Lithuanian-Jewish love. This time it’s the story “Growing Lithuanian Business Ties Beget Political Support” which reported on the recent visit to Israel of the Lithuanian Minister for the Economy Evaldas Gustas.
The rejected comments pointed out that a senior specialist employed at his ministry was exposed last spring as Lithuania’s most hateful internet blogger, responsible for a series of images disparaging to Jews, Blacks, Gays, and to the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania (sampling of images here). Our Open Letter to the minister essentially asks why the hateful top official is still in office. Is such a question taboo for a major English language daily in Israel?
Posted in Citizenship, Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Israel, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, South Africa
Tagged Jerusalem Post's coverage of Lithuania, Lithuanian-Jewish relations
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Yad Vashem and the “Two Genocides”
O P I N I O N
by Danny Ben-Moshe (Melbourne)
This op-ed was first published in Jerusalem Report in August 2013.
I remember my first visit to Yad Vashem as a 16-year-old visitor to Jerusalem. It had a profound, and indeed formative, effect on me. I left there with a badge clipped to my lapel inscribed with the motto, zakhor, the Hebrew word for remember.
Yet for all its splendid work, Yad Vashem whose formal title is The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, I am sorry to say, is now dramatically failing both the martyrs and heroes of the country where the percentage of the Jewish community annihilated in the Holocaust was higher than anywhere else in Europe – Lithuania.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Australia, Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem and Lithuania
Tagged Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide, Emanuelis Zingeris, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg, Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism (2008), Yitzhak Arad
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Who’s Afraid of Defending History Dot Com?
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
It is gratifying that numerous scholars from different parts of the world, and indeed of differing opinions on the contentious issues that lie at the heart of Defending History, have on occasion found it a useful resource for data and views on various topics, including the Double Genocide movement, the Prague Declaration (2008), the Seventy Years Declaration (2012), the politics of memory, Holocaust Obfuscation, glorification of Holocaust perpetrators (and attempted criminalization of resistance heroes), East European antisemitism, racism, homophobia, and Litvak identity theft (more on contents and quick intro page).
Posted in Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Free Speech & Democracy, History, Human Rights, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Russian Speakers' Personal Status
Tagged democracy in the Baltics, Mccarthyism in 21st century Eastern Europe, new far right in Eastern Europe
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An Important Book by Lithuania’s Health Minister, Totally Ignored by the Lithuanian Media. Why?
B O O K S
by Geoff Vasil
See also: Andriukaitis’s 2012 reply to the foreign minister; on the floor of parliament; Andriukaitis section
Vytenis Povilas Andrukaitis, health minister of Lithuania. Photo: DefendingHistory.com
Vytenis Andriukaitis is a veteran politician. If you haven’t been following Lithuanian politics since 1990, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of him, and even if you have, there’s a fair chance you didn’t notice him amid the various cults of personality which have dominated the political scene since about 1990.
The reason for that is fairly simple: Andriukaitis has never cultivated or even tolerated a cult of personality to grow up around him. From the very first days of Lithuanian independence, a freedom movement with which Andriukaitis was intimately involved, he has stubbornly clung to the idea of multiparty parliamentary democracy, largely by his own tenacity reviving the pre-World War II Lithuanian Social Democratic Party.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Books, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vytenis Andriukaitis
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Estonian Pro-Fascists Celebrate Country’s 1944 Waffen SS Legion
This year’s summer celebration of Estonia’s Hitler-allied Waffen SS was held as scheduled, in the Sinimae hills of eastern Estonia last Saturday, the 27th of July. Images and reports were carried by Postimees and other media.
Source: Postimees
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Estonia, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, News & Views
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Free Speech and Holocaust Remembrance in the Eastern European Union
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
NOTE: This was written in response to “Foreign countries use far-right operations to undermine Lithuania’s image” published on June 7, 2013, on the Lithuania Tribune website.
Initially the editor-in-chief of the Lithuania Tribune agreed to publish the following reply in the Lithuania Tribune, but then changed his mind and finally refused, only informing the author a month later…
Posted in Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Free Speech & Democracy, Geoff Vasil, History, Lithuania, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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Vexed Revival of “Red-Brown Commission”
State-sponsored Zingeris-Račinskas “red-brown commission” (officially: International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania) in Vilnius posts new list of members.
See also:
Page on the commission
Critiques of the commission and its associated Prague Declaration
DH section on the commission.
Resignations to date from Commission-related bodies include Dr. Yitzhak Arad, Sir Martin Gilbert (London), Prof. Gershon Greenberg (Washington DC), Prof. Konrad Kwiet (Sydney) and Prof. Dov Levin (Jerusalem).
Holocaust survivors themselves have stood up to express disquiet about some aspects of the commission: Yitzhak Arad, Pinchos Fridberg (more), Dov Levin (more), Joseph Melamed (more), Basheva Ran, the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, Jewish Community of Lithuania / Union of Ghetto Survivors. A decade and a half of issues.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", "Vilnius Jewish Public Library", Double Games, Double Genocide, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Germany, Holocaust Policies of Mr. Ronaldas Račinskas and the State-Sponsored "International Commission" (ICECNSORL), Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Views of Prof. Sarunas Liekis
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Double Genocide, Dov Levin, Emanuelis Zingeris, Holocaust Denial and Obfuscation, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Joseph Melamed, Litvaks, Milan Chersonski, Pinchos Fridberg, Red-Brown Commission, Ronaldas Racinskas, Sarunas Liekis, Yitzhak Arad
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Rehabilitation of the Past as a Tool in Today’s Politics
O P I N I O N
by Milan Chersonski
Milan Chersonski reads his paper at the Riga conference, 27 May 2013
The following is the authorized English version of the paper read by Milan Chersonski in Riga on 27 May 2013 at the Second International Conference on Holocaust Museums and Memorial Places in Post-Communist Countries.
Milan Chersonski (Chersonskij), longtime editor (1999-2011) of Jerusalem of Lithuania, quadrilingual (English-Lithuanian-Russian-Yiddish) newspaper of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, was previously (1979-1999) director of the Yiddish Folk Theater of Lithuania, which in Soviet times was the USSR’s only Yiddish amateur theater company.
See also the Milan Chersonski section of Defending History.
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In Eastern European countries occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II there was a phenomenon called “collaborationism”: the cooperation of individuals and organizations with the Nazi occupation regime. In the modern historiography of these countries, events of that fateful time are often presented not by historians, but primarily by right-wing or extreme right-wing politicians, who continue today to convince the public that the collaboration was in fact nothing but a form of struggle for independence, and a kind of resistance to the Nazi regime.
Sometimes this approach to the evaluation of historical events is called whitewashing. The purpose of this manipulative activity is clear: to absolve the erstwhile Nazi collaborators and pro-Nazi national organizations from the responsibility for the crimes against humanity committed during the Nazi occupation, and their countries from responsibility for Nazi crimes.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Genocide Center (Vilnius), History, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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